The Creepy Crawlies of the Music World

It may be hard to believe but  spiders do use sound and rhythm. The sounds that they use may be made with a little help from their surroundings but the sounds produced contribute to the life cycles of spiders (Rovner, 1967). One of the best examples from the arachnid world would have to be the Wolf Spider. The main use for these animals’ sounds is for hunting purposes (Rovner, 1967). Unlike most spiders, wolf spiders do not construct a web to entangle their pray in, instead they use the grassy fields which they live in to attract and capture prey (Rovner, 1967). They complete this process by rubbing their forelegs on the dry grasses, in combination with the sounds from their abdomen to attach the insects before restraining them and proceeding to eat them (Rovner, 1967). As well as being a valuable tool for survival, wolf spiders use a combination of these sounds to form a courtship sequence (Rovner, 1967).

 

The male wolf spider’s courtship sequence consists of several large bursts of pulses followed by the continuous sounds of pulses which will last about 2 seconds (Rovner, 1967). There is an increase in the volume of the sound toward the end of every train (Rovner, 1967). There is always a sudden end to the sequence and the intervals of the sequence are about 14 seconds (Rovner, 1967). Once the male has performed his part of the courtship sequence , if there are any receptive females in the region they will respond (Rovner, 1967). They do this by completing a leg waving display within 5 seconds after the male finishes his courtship sequence (Rovner, 1967). The female completes this leg waving in the intervals of the males sequence, as the males sequence intensifies so does the female’s (Rovner, 1967). As well as this courtship rhythmic dance the males use their palpal drumming sounds to complete a threat display (Rovner, 1967). 

This threat display performed by the males is generally completed at a male to male encounter (Rovner, 1967). Although the drumming sounds in this sequence slightly differ from that of the courtship sounds. In this display the sounds come in quick, frequent bursts of drumming sounds occurring at irregular intervals (Rovner, 1967). Although the world of a wolf spider seems so quiet, in actual fact there are many different sounds and rhythms are involved.  

Works Cited

Rovner, J., 1967. Acoustic communication in a lycosid spider. Animal Behaviour , Volume 15, pp. 273-281.

Images sources from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider

Video source from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7WEaZ14G-Q